Preamp LITERALLY exploded! Any ideas?

Hey guys... My beloved Mackie Onyx has perished in flames today. Im not understanding what in the world could have happened, but Im lucky it didnt fry the mobo.


So I was literally doing nothing but playing guitar through it. Passive guitar -> passive filters -> preamp -> usb to mother board.

I heard a loud "Pop" and the "you just fried something smell", and ALL of my USB ports stopped working. Nothing responded, and my preamp had smoke coming out of it. In a massive panic, I restarted the computer... which seemed to fix those issues. Either I got lucky, or the sabertooth protected me, either way Im glad there was no serious damage.

But I cant figure out how a passive guitar can cause it to explode. The USB power/data cable was actually brand new! I had a synthesizer that I pulled the USB cable from (new in box), and that was a few weeks ago. I haven't google-fu'd yet, but I figured I'd start here and see if anyone has any ideas.

I can upload a pic of where the preamp was destroyed if necessary.

Probably blew a cap. It happens. I doubt you would have had any risk of damaging the mobo.

If it blew a cap, some thing we not wrong. What was the deal with usb stuff not working then?

Most likely a tantalum cap blew. They're infamous for rather dramatic failures in small packages.

I just don't understand the "why" part of this. How does a USB powered PASSIVE electrical device explode... Had to be the power from the motherboard(?), I really can't think of anything else.

I also don't understand why my computer lost all its input section (no sound, no internet, no usb) and had to restart and got it all back.

"USB powered" is not "passive" in any way, it is powered. When electricity is applied, things can die. The "death" likely caused a short, triggering an internal, temporary fuse or OCP to trigger. The reboot would reset the fusing.